Fairy Tale Unit- first grade

For about five weeks the first graders followed a routine completing lessons about fairy tales.   Each week we read and discussed a new fairy tale a completed an activity on the computer to accompany the story.

First was "Rumpelstiltskin".  Each week we completed a chart like the one below.
After reading Rumpelstiltskin students students learned how to use Kidspiration and created a character map.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.1.3 Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details.

Next was "Jack and the Beanstalk".  I chose to read the Steven Kellogg version even though it is an ogre not a giant because Steven Kellogg's books are just beautiful.  Students drew the setting in Tux Paint after we completed the chart.

Third was "Little Red Riding Hood" by Trina Schart Hyman.  Students were surprised it was not the James Marshall ending when I read the woodcutter opened the wolf with a knife. After the students use the Read Write Think Story Map to focus on conflict and resolution. http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/storymap/

Last was Frog Prince by Brothers Grimm. Students worked in small groups to complete a comparison chart that compares all 4 fairy tales.


During the final week the students completed the comparison chart.  After I read a fractured fairy tale as a brief introduction. "The Giant and the Beanstalk" by Diane Stanley.

Common Core
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.1.9 Compare and contrast the adventures and experiences of characters in stories.

      

Dewey Radio- fourth grade

As a class we read and discussed "Bob the Alien Discovers the Dewey Decimal System" by Sandy Donovan.  By fourth grade the students know how to find books using call numbers but they do not that each number has a meaning.  This book is fun for them. While discussing the book, I show students the Dewey Decimal Classification and Relative Index. I turn to random pages and tell them what some of the numbers mean and they always want me to keep going. It's great.


After, I am finally able to use QR codes again.  Students worked in groups and scanned a QR code at each of the 10 Dewey sections. The code took them to a website and the groups wrote down topics of books found in that section and then found exact titles to match the topics.

Last, students we discussed what makes them exciting: sounds, tone of voice, content.  Each group was assigned a Dewey section and they wrote and recorded a 30 second radio commercial using Garageband. Take a listen.
  

Common Core
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.4.1 Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 4 topics and texts, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.4.4 Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience in an organized manner, using appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details to support main ideas or themes; speak clearly at an understandable pace.

Online Storybook- Kindergarten

The next piece of technology for Kindergarten is listening to a storybook online.  These students have heard teachers read books to them all year long but now the computer is going to read them. Better yet, they are going to have to interact with it. In the Mac App Store, I downloaded the free app Grimms Red Riding Hood. I cannot say better things about it. The storybook is 3D and the words can be read to them or they can read the book themsleves. After every page the students have to interact with the book and complete a task that helps tell a story. For example, they need to clean Red Riding Hoods room before she leaves.

The Red Riding Hood App is free, the others are at a cost.
 


UPDATE: These are no available for the iPad! https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/grimms-red-riding-hood-3d/id445388456?mt=8

My favorite thing about Kindergarten is...

"My favorite thing about Kindergarten is..."

My goal for the Kindergarteners is to expose them to as much technology as possible between January and June.  After knowing they can use the mouse we move into digitally drawing.

As a class we brainstorm all the things they have learned about in class since September.  Students pick their favorite thing and draw a picture in Tux Paint.  To go along with their picture students learn about recording their voices in Garageband.  They record "My favorite thing about Kindergarten is..." followed by a reasoning sentence.  Students get to see all the drawn pictures and voices together.

Common Core
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.K.5 Add drawings or other visual displays to descriptions as desired to provide additional detail.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.K.6 Speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings, and ideas clearly.

Learning the Mouse with Kindergarten

As technology is becoming more prominent at home, I'm finding my Kindergarten students are coming in with less of an ability to use the mouse on the desktops.  Students are great at the iPads and some are even good at the trackpads on a laptop.  So I start my Kindergarten students with a few weeks of mouse games.

Bees and Honey
Mouse Speed
Connect the Dots
Mouse Maze

Gingerbread- second grade

My December activity for second grade had to be short and sweet.  Since we lost two weeks with Hurricane Sandy, we had fallen behind on projects and were running out of time before break.

I loved the idea of adding culture to my activites in the third grade so I tried to do it with second graders too.  We started by reading "The Gingerbread Man" by Jim Aylesworth. The students love to read along and I love when they do.
Then the students created Gingerbread Glyphs on the computer.

The next week we read "The Matzo Ball Boy" by Lisa Shulman and compared the two books.  We also kept a list of all the Yiddush words and their definitions on the SMART Board.  After the story students began using a program called The Graph Club. (I really wanted to introduce Excel but time constraints prevented it.)  We began graphing the students answers to the glyph about the activities they like to do.

In the third week we read "The Runaway Rice Cake" by Ying Chang and compared the cultures.  The story is a bit different from the gingerbread man but it was great for the students to recognize that.  This story is very cultural. Students completed their graphs.

Common Core
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.2.4 Describe how words and phrases (e.g., regular beats, alliteration, rhymes, repeated lines) supply rhythm and meaning in a story, poem, or song.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.2.2 Recount stories, including fables and folktales from diverse cultures, and determine their central message, lesson, or moral.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.2.9 Compare and contrast two or more versions of the same story (e.g., Cinderella stories) by different authors or from different cultures.
 

Owls- fourth grade

While studying ecosystems the fourth graders complete a research project on Owls.  Students worked in groups to research one of six owls found in New Jersey.

This project is great because of the vast amount of resources used to complete the project. 

The students use:

1. information text to learn traits and behaviors of the owls
2. dictionaries to define words such as habitat
3. World Book Online to learn the traits of all owls in general
4. websites for additional research
5. PowerPoint to create a presentations

Photo Gallery by QuickGallery.com


Photo Gallery by QuickGallery.com

A bonus allows students to take a field trip see the owls live.

To complete the project students I teach students how to speak to their classmates while having their PowerPoint up the SmartBoard.  Student's love having their projects projects onto the board while they practice standing at "the angle" where they can see the both the board and talk to the audience. 

This year was tough.  With 2 weeks off for Hurricane Sandy it felt like this project went on forever.  I'm proud of my students for hanging in there.


A link for the files will be here soon.

Common Core
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.4.8 Recall relevant information from experiences or gather relevant information from print and digital sources; take notes and categorize information, and provide a list of sources.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.4.2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4.9 Integrate information from two texts on the same topic in order to write or speak about the subject knowledgeably.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.4.4 Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience in an organized manner, using appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details to support main ideas or themes; speak clearly at an understandable pace.